South Africa Plans to Publish Its Review of Mining Charter `Within Weeks'

South Africa, the world’s largest platinum producer, plans to release its reviewed Mining Charter, which stipulates rules on local ownership, within the next few weeks after earlier saying it would be completed by today.

The review will be published “within weeks,” Jeremy Michaels, spokesman for the Department of Mineral Resources, said by mobile phone today. Mines Minister Susan Shabangu said on June 30 that the review, which started last year, would be completed in August.

The 2004 Mining Charter set targets for boosting black participation in the industry to make amends for apartheid, the segregation policy that ended in 1994. It required companies to sell 15 percent of their South African assets to black investors by the end of 2009 and 26 percent by 2014. The government was required to review the document five years after inception.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, Anglo American Plc, the biggest platinum producer, and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the third biggest gold producer, are among companies operating in the country.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net

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